Back in March we lost our IG account. Here's how I got it back.

[alexandriak]

For the last four years IG has been taking down consignment pages left and right for "copyright/trademark infringement". In some cases I'm sure these account deactivations are valid, BUT in the cases that I personally know about (and experienced), they're not.

From March to June I did all of the things I could think of. I purchased meta verified for my personal accounts, didn't work. 

I chatted with meta business advertiser support. Didn't work. This was probably more frustrating than anything as they kept going in circles. 

I contemplated hiring a hacker. 

I figured out the emails for the entire IG corporate team and emailed them once a week for a few weeks. 

What finally worked was a two part process. 

Part 1:

I contacted our attorney on retainer. Why I didn't do this sooner than June I couldn't tell you. I explained the situation and sent them a template that I know had worked for a few others in the past. Once they had that ready for me I moved to part 2.

Part 2:
I wrote a 4 page letter to the meta legal team talking about my business. How it started, how we authenticate items, what companies we use for authentication, what we do with counterfeits, etc. I talked about filming content and photographing items. I made sure to mention that we were in good standing with all state and federal agencies. That we were a registered business. 

In the letters I made sure to mention commercial damages, and that they had gotten a report made in bad faith, which was an abuse of their systems. 

I printed out my attorney's letter and mine along with proof of over a dozen authentications and mailed them out myself. My attorney also sent a copy of their letter on their own.

Shortly after the letters were sent I randomly realized one day that our account had been reactivated! 3 months and 10 days later. 


My advice to anyone who is dealing with this is to contact your attorney immediately. Have them prepare a letter, and also write your own letter.

[maxpete]

What a wild ride this has all been @alexandriak!

I'm glad that you finally got your account back and thank you for sharing these tips with other sellers too!

Here's to no more meta fires 🙏

[alexandriak]

Fingers crossed! Shortly after getting our account back they rolled out the meta verified for business pages. I did sign up for that so I'm hoping it's extra insurance but who knows

[maxpete]

Keep us posted on this!

[Dayfivenick]

Sound advice.

[DinaLRosenberg]

We once had our account taken down and we were freaking out- we got ours back within the week. I'm so sorry it took you so long but am happy you have it back. Definitely gonna put your advice in our back pocket.

[alexandriak]

I'm so glad it was only a week for you! 

I know of some store owners in my business space that lost theirs for 6 months or longer. Crazy.